SPORTS OF THE TIMES; 'Other Pitchers' Are the Only Ones Who Are Left

By DAVE ANDERSON

Published: October 19, 2006

This isn't as if the Mets were trying to get to the World Series with Seaver and Koosman, or Gooden and Darling, or Leiter and Hampton.

No, this is the Mets trying to get to the World Series with two somewhat unknown and unexpected starters, each of whom had been the ''other pitcher'' in two of General Manager Omar Minaya's trades -- John Maine, a rookie right-hander who was 2-4 over two brief seasons with the Orioles before arriving in an off-season swap for the right-handed pitcher Kris Benson, and Oliver P?z, a left-hander who was 2-10 with the Pirates before being obtained in a July 31 trade for outfielder Xavier Nady.

Maine and P?z.

Maine pitched five and a third scoreless innings in last night's 4-2 victory, and if P?z can match that tonight in tonight Game 7 against the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, the Mets might be in the World Series after one of the most unlikely comebacks in baseball history.

Maine and P?z, the Mets' odd couple, have replaced the damaged Pedro Mart?z and the damaged Orlando Hern?ez in the rotation.

When the postseason began, Mart?z was merely a cheerleader in the dugout, with his right arm in a sling after an operation on his damaged rotator cuff in his pitching shoulder.

Without him, the Mets' rotation was nowhere near what it had been when Mart?z was not only its ace but its soul, when the Mets were running away with the N.L. East.

And when Hern?ez, the elegant El Duque, tore a calf muscle running in the outfield the day before the division series opener against the Dodgers, the Mets' list of proven postseason pitchers was reduced to one, the lefthander Tom Glavine, a 290-game winner.

When the Mets faced elimination last night, they had to rely on Maine, with a 6-5 record, who allowed four runs over four innings in the Game 2 loss.

But with Maine escaping from a bases-loaded situation in the first inning, three bullpen pitchers -- Chad Bradford, Guillermo Mota and Aaron Heilman -- adding three scoreless innings before closer Billy Wagner kept the Cardinals from scoring more than two runs in the ninth, the Mets forced a Game 7 that P?z will start.

''What happened in the season is over,'' P?z said at his locker after last night's game. ''I feel fine. I'm ready for anything.''

Maine allowed only two hits while striking out five, walking four and justifying Manager Willie Randolph's choice.

''He showed me that he's tough,'' Randolph said. ''He didn't really waver at all. I just told him, 'Go out there and let it go.' ''

Only once before had the Mets returned to Shea down, 3-2, in a best-of-seven series. In the 1986 World Series they lost the first two games to the Red Sox at Shea, won two of three at Fenway Park, then returned to Shea to win Game 6 when the Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner let Mookie Wilson's grounder get by him in the 10th inning. The Mets won Game 7 when they rallied for an 8-5 victory.

The Mets deserved to brag about the season-long excellence of their bullpen, although their touted closer, Wagner, lost Game 2 when the Mets had a chance to take a 2-0 lead in the series. But their rotation was a wreck at the worst possible time, especially when Glavine, who had dazzled both the Dodgers in Game 2 of the division series and the Cardinals in Game 1 of the pennant series, couldn't get an out in the fifth inning of the Game 5 loss that put the Mets on the brink.

Pitching has always been the name of the game in the postseason, but too often in this postseason the Mets weren't even sure of their starting pitcher's name.

Whenever other Mets teams went to a postseason series-deciding game, their established starter had at least three days' rest -- Seaver on three days in Game 5 against the Reds in the 1973 N.L.C.S., Jon Matlack three in Game 7 against the Athletics in the 1973 World Series, Ron Darling four in Game 7 against the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, and Darling three in Game 7 against the Dodgers in the 1988 N.L.C.S.

In the Mets' four World Series, their Game 1 starter was always an established name with more than enough rest. Seaver opened with six days' rest in 1969, Matlack with five in 1973, Darling with six in 1986, Al Leiter with eight in 2000. The Mets won the Series in 1969 and 1986, lost it in 1973 and 2000.

And for all of the Mets' cloudy future before last night's game, Randolph was still looking to Saturday's opener of the World Series in Detroit, where each of the Tigers pitchers will have at least six days' rest. Asked if he had a special message, either collectively or individually, to help his players relax before striding onto the brink of elimination, Randolph smiled.

''No,'' he said. ''Our travel plans for Friday are what we're going to talk about.''

Photos: John Maine, above left, with Rick Peterson, the Mets' pitching coach, during Maine's winning performance last night in Game 6. At right, Peterson talking to Oliver Pérez during the Mets' victory in Game 4. (Photos by Richard Perry/The New York Times; below, Barton Silverman/The New York Times)